Auditors have uncovered more problems with government-issue credit cards. An investigation at the Department of Employment found less than a third of spending by card users was approved beforehand: “We noted the increased pressure to spend budgets at fiscal year-end.”
A Liberal MP says he has been racially profiled by the Canada Border Services Agency. Gagan Sikand, who was born in Canada, cited “gross misconduct” by Customs officers: “As a South Asian male, there have been many incidents.”
Cabinet for the first time will offer taxpayer-guaranteed lines of credit for small business, says a Department of Industry report. The department did not estimate risks of default under a current program that sees fifteen percent of first-time borrowers fail to repay their loans: “Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of the Canadian economy.”
Finance Minister Bill Morneau will not disclose toll revenues from the taxpayer-owned Trans Mountain Pipeline but insists the project is commercially viable. “We’re not taking questions,” said an aide.
The Alberta Court of Appeal has upheld a six-year sentence in federal prison for a crooked accountant who filed more than $2.9 million in false tax returns with the Canada Revenue Agency. The maximum penalty for tax fraud under the Criminal Code is fourteen years: “This case involves a serious multi-million dollar fraud.”
Take this poem,
wrap it around your fist,
smash it in the face of the bully.
If it doesn’t help,
I’ll write you a stronger one.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
Canada’s entire submarine fleet spent last year in dry dock at a cost to taxpayers of $325.5 million, according to accounts. The Department of National Defence by 2021 will spend more on refits and repairs than it cost to buy the fleet: “Invaluable.”
The Senate budget committee yesterday agreed to open a confidential hotline for complaints of harassment or “mobbing” by senators and staff. The measure follows investigation of lewd misconduct by one former lawmaker: “Let’s not forget.”
Former jurors including a senator who said she was traumatized by bloodcurdling autopsy photos yesterday appealed for speedy passage of a jurors’ aid bill. An identical bill passed the Commons by unanimous vote last April 12 but lapsed in the Senate: ‘It was horrific.’
A judge has upheld a finding of résumé fraud by a federal employee. The Public Service Commission yesterday said it received 78 fraud complaints last year. Seventeen were upheld: ‘No alleged Charter rights were violated.’
Private landowners have no automatic right to compensation from federal orders protecting species at risk, says the Federal Court. The ruling came in the case of a rare frog that halted completion of a $22 million subdivision in Québec: “It is better to leave the Minister of the Environment all the latitude necessary.”
Members of the Commons finance committee last night questioned a federal tax cut worth $1.73 a week. “It is incumbent on us to be more familiar with Canadians’ needs,” said Prosperity Minister Mona Fortier.
MPs last night depicted Canada’s ambassador to Beijing as a China apologist who personally profited from dealings with the People’s Republic. “My integrity matters a lot to me,” said Ambassador Dominic Barton. “It matters a huge amount to me.”
The Senate yesterday took up a private Liberal bill to ban all sweatshop imports produced by slave or child labour. Importers would be personally liable for damages: “This is a bill that has real teeth to it.”
Senator Lynn Beyak yesterday said she has never claimed to be Métis. Beyak attributed the quote to a bad-tempered instructor in sensitivity training classes who lectured the Senator on white privilege: “We would have to agree to disagree.”
